1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to the purchase of discounted products, and in particular to a method and system for efficiently utilizing coupons for the purchase of products. Still more particularly, the present invention relates an electronic, computerized coupon redeeming method and system for utilization during purchasing of products.
2. Description of the Related Art
Redeemable coupons, such as merchandise coupons and rebate coupons, are frequently utilized to entice consumers to purchase particular products and/or brands of products. Advertisers constantly issue or publish printed coupons which can be taken to a redemption center, such as a retail store, and redeemed for some value or as a discount toward the purchase of some item. While this method has proven to be effective, there are many disadvantages to the process for the user, for the redemption center or retail store, as well as for the advertisers themselves.
The problems associated with clipping coupons by a user are manifold. First, a user must purchase or otherwise obtain a publication and search through the publication for coupons which would be meaningful or useful to the user. The user must then cut out the coupons, being of various physical sizes, leaving a pile of scrap paper and holes in the pages of the publication. Some advertisers use handouts or flyers which, although making the searching job easier, leaves the problem of having to cut out the coupons. This tends to be an annoying task which results in a waste of valuable time. Being of different sizes and pertaining to different types of products, the user must separate the coupons into product categories and band the coupons together as best as he or she can. The user then has to store these bits of paper in some location. When finally on his way to shop, the user stuffs these sorted coupons into a pocket or purse. Upon arrival at a particular retail outlet at which at least some of the coupons are redeemable, the user fumbles through the groups of coupons and attempts to find the products in the store. In the event that the user is not familiar with the layout of the store, this again constitutes a gross misuse of valuable time. Furthermore, since each store lays out their products differently, and carries different products and brands of products, the user may find it necessary to search out the desirable item in a number of stores. Finally, upon gathering the product into the pushcart or basket, the user is faced with selecting the coupons for the products and presenting them to the store clerk or cashier.
This then leads to the next problem associated with coupon redemption, in that the store clerk must sort through the coupons, ensuring that they relate to the products being purchased and that the expiration dates are appropriate, and then enter the discount information in the computer (usually by a bar code scanner). This part of the redemption process takes valuable time away from the checkout clerk and irritates other people waiting in the checkout line. After the customer leaves, the retail store is still not relieved from further expenditure of valuable employee time, since the accumulated coupons in the retail store must now be sorted by manufacturer, tallied on a score sheet or in a computer or submitted to brokerage house, and sent off to the manufacturer for retail store reimbursement.
Several previous patents have attempted to create more efficient ways of handling coupons. Powell (U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,044) discloses a personal computer system which receives coupon information and translates them into a binary format before encoding them unto a portable customer card used at checkout in place of the paper coupons. Holman (U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,181) discloses an electronic coupon generating system which uses a television transmission signal along with a decoder and recorder to encode the coupon information on a magnetically striped card (such as an ID card) called the Q card which can be swiped though the card reader at the cash register.
One of the fastest growing areas of communications is the Internet or World Wide Web (WWW). The Internet is widely utilized in selling products through a fast growing E-commerce business. The World Wide Web (Web) is a graphic, interactive interface for the Internet (the term Internet is utilized interchangeably with Web throughout this specification). There are different computer program applications (web browser clients, referred hereinafter as web browser) on a data processing system connected to the web that are utilized to access servers connected to the Web. Today, most networks are connected to the Internet and have a home web page which can be opened/accessed by a web browser. A web page is a graphic display which is usually linked together and may be downloaded to a data processing system utilizing a web browser. Each web page has a unique address, or Universal Resource Locator (URL) within the Web that is accessible by utilizing Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) transactions via telecommunication networks and a modem. The address allows a web browser to connect to and communicate with a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server over the Web.
The fast growing web activity has led many companies to advertise products on the Internet. However, most companies which are engaged in the retail business still spend lots of their resources on the paper coupon system described above. There is presently no way to effectively provide coupons via the web which a user can select without having to print the coupon off the site and go through the time consuming process described above.
The present invention recognizes that it would therefore be advantageous to have a method and system for utilizing the web to more efficiently distribute redeemable coupons. It would also be advantageous if such a method and system allowed a user to select and store desired coupons electronically via the web. It would be further advantageous to have a method and system which could help a customer to locate products for which the customer has electronically redeemable coupons.